Greek Beast

Greek myth and legend is filled with a wide variety of monsters and creatures ranging from Dragons, Giants, Demons and Ghosts, to multiformed creatures such as the Sphinx, Minotaur, Centaurs, Manticores and Griffins.There were also many fabulous animals such as the Nemean Lion, golden-fleeced Ram and winged horse Pegasus, not to mention the creatures of legend such as the Phoenix, Unicorns (Monocerata) . Even amongst the tribes of man, myth spoke of strange peoples inhabiting the far reaches of the earth such as the hopping Umbrella-Foots, the one-eyed Arimaspians, the Dog-Headed men, and the puny Pygmies.

SIREN

SPHINX

AUTOMOTON

SEA-GOD, NEREUS

AMPHISBAENAE see Beasts, African

AUTOMOTONS (Automotones) Creatures crafted out of metal and endowed with life by the smith-god Hephaestus.

BULLS, BRONZE (Tauroi Khalkeoi) Four fire-breathing, bronze bulls which Hephaestus crafted for King Aeetes of Colchis.

CELEDONES (Keledones) Golden singing maidens which Hephaistos crafted for the first temple of Apollo at Delphi.

DOGS, GOLD & SILVER (Kuones Khryseos Argyreos) A pair of gold and silver dogs which Hephaestus crafted for King Alcinous of the Phaeacians.

DOG, ORTHROS (Kuon Orthros) A two-headed, serpent-tailed dog which guarded the cattle of Geryon. It was slain by Heracles.

DRACAENAE (Drakainai) Female-monsters with the head and torsos of women and serpentine-tails in place of legs.

CAMPE (Kampe) A monstrous Tartarean dracaena who had the body of a woman and a serpent’s tail. Her head was wreathed in snakes and her serpentine body was arrayed with a thousand snake’s tails for feet. She was armed with a giant scorpion’s sting, black wings and around her waist were arrayed the heads of fifty wild beasts.

DRACAENA, POINE (Drakaina Poine) A monstrous child-devouring she-dragon sent by Apollo to punish the men of Argos.

DRACAENA, SCYTHIAN (Drakaina Skythia) A Scythian dracaena who seduced Heracles and bore him three sons.

ECHIDNA 1 (Ekhidna) An immortal Cicilian dracaena who mated with the monstrous giant Typhon and bore a brood of the most fearsome of monsters.

TITYUS (Tityos) A giant who tried to rape the goddess Leto and was sent to eternal punishment in Hades.

TYPHON (Typhoeus) A monstrous giant with one human and ninety-nine animal heads, two hundred hands each tipped with fifty serpents, a pair of serpent tails for legs, giant wings, and a fire-breathing maw. He was buried beneath Mt Etna by Zeus.

GORGON, MEDUSA

GRIFFIN

HORSE, PEGASUS

HIPPOCAMP

MEN, CECROPS

LION, NEMEAN

GORGONS (Gorgones) Three monstrous Libyan sisters with broad faces, staring eyes, flaring nostrils, wiry beards, tusks and protruding tongues. Their heads were wreathed in snakes, a pair of golden wings sprung from their backs, and in place of hands they had brazen claws.

GRAEAE (Graiai) Three old hags born with grey hair, wrinkled skin and only one tooth and one eye between them.

GRIFFINS (Grypes) Winged beasts with the foreparts of eagles and the bodies of lions.

HARPIES (Harpyiai) Three winged monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads and torsos of women.

HIPPALEKTRYON (Hippalektryon) A creature with the fore-parts of the rooster and the body of a horse.

HIPPOCAMPI (Hippokampoi) Sea-creatures with the fore-parts of horses and the tails of serpentine fish.

TARAXIPPI (Taraxippoi) Horse-frightening ghosts or daemones which haunted the race-courses of Olympia, Nemea and the Isthmus.

PHOENIX (Phoinix) A fabulous golden-red bird whose feathers shone with the light of the sun.

PYGMIES See Men, fantastic

RAM, GOLDEN-FLEECED (Krios Khrysomallos) A flying, talking, golden-fleeced Ram who rescued the children Phrixus and Helle from a sacrifice to the gods.

RIVER GODS & DAEMONES (Theoi Daimones Potamoi) The river-gods appeared either as men from the chest upwards, set upon the serpentine tail of a fish and crowned with a single bull’s horn, or as horned man-headed bulls.

ACHELOUS (Akheloios) An Aetolian river-god who was wrestled by Heracles.

OCEANUS (Okeanos) The god of the great earth-encircling river Ocean. He had the tail of a serpentine fish and a bull’s horn on his head.